Jonathan Tyler & the Northern Lights.

Giving you the music a day early:

Before they hit the high seas in late April with a jolly band of modern-day rock pirates in Kid Rock, Uncle Kracker and others as part of the Chillin’ the Most Cruise, Dallas-based blues rock outfit Jonathan Tyler & the Northern Lights have a few headlining club dates of their own, including a visit to Sticky Fingerz. The opening acts are Nashville, Tenn., via Tulsa, hard rock stompers The Effects and Little Rock rock outfit Luster, kicking off the music at 9 p.m. Cover is $8 for the 21-and-up show. Called a “a package of rock & roll thunder,” Tyler and his Lights, influenced by the blues-laced rock ‘n’ roll of The Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, Stevie Ray Vaughan and AC/DC, are preparing to release their Atlantic Records debut, Pardon Me, in April.

One week short of the one-year anniversary of the last time he played Little Rock, T-Model Ford, a real-life Mississippi hill-country bluesman, revisits White Water Tavern. No word on a cover, but expect the hip-shaking music around 9:30 p.m. with Arkansas bluesman Jim Mize. Nearing 90 (give or take a year or two), the Mississippi-born Ford continues to play, backed by a group of Seattle musicians known as GravelRoad, having played 20 shows in Europe from September to October 2009. Known for his rhythmic, raw guitar playing and rough-South vocals, Ford’s newest album is the Jan. 12 release The Ladies Man, the musician’s first all-acoustic album, recorded live in a Wichita, Kan., studio in the summer of 2008.

Big Smith, the Springfield, Mo., band composed of five cousins and one, fiddle-playing non-cousin, have released their first studio album of original material since 2000′s Big Rock, titled Roots, Shoots and Wings, a 16-track collection of the band’s modern take on hillbilly music. To celebrate — and play — the new music, Big Smith is on the road, including a stop at Revolution Music Room. The show starts at 8:30 p.m. with Little Rock’s Mockingbird, a self-described “hillbilly party band” with some big names in it who kick out the jams with a serious dose of psychedelic-laced roots music. Big Smith is simply an Ozark-Mountains powered, musical hootenanny of explosive bluegrass music mingled with country, rock ‘n’ roll and folk.

A little event Vino’s is calling Pop Fest features Little Rock pop punk rock act Thrill of a Dog Fight, For the Day, Bring Victory, Embrace the Crash and infectious pop punk group Box Wine. The music starts at 7 p.m. with a $10 cover. Box Wine has just finished recording their new EP in Missouri with Malcolm Springer, who has worked with Matchbox 20 and Collective Soul.

Kyle Glass is one half of the duo Tenacious D, a comedic rock band that features actor and musician Jack Black as the other half. But as Klip Calhoun, Glass plays lead acoustic guitar in the five member Trainwreck, a band whose music is Southern rock in nature but includes progressive rock and boogie influences in its mixture to create what is described as “wreck and roll.” Trainwreck’s current tour brings them to The Village. The doors open at 7:30 p.m. with the music at 8:30 p.m. General admission tickets are $10 advance and $13 at the door.

The King of Country, George Strait, and country music’s No. 1 female artist of all time, Reba McEntire, bring their hit-singing tour to Verizon Arena, with opener Lee Ann Womack. Upper-level tickets were still available earlier this week. Tickets are on sale at the Verizon Arena Box Office for $81.25 and $91.25, or through all Ticketmaster outlets, charge by phone at (800) 745-3000 or online at ticketmaster.com for $93.45 and $104.75. Doors open at 6 p.m. with Womack kicking the music off at 7 p.m. followed by Reba and then Strait.

Just because I’m a fan of George Strait (his early stuff), here’s “Amarillo By Morning”: